Even though the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) on Friday commenced part payment of salary and pension, two director board members resigned in protest against the decision to freeze dearness allowance and laxity on the part of the LDF government to intervene in the salary and pension disbursal.
R. Sasidharan, nominee of the employees in the KSRTC director board and general secretary of the INTUC-affliated KST Workers Union, submitted his resignation to Minister for Transport A.K. Saseendran. Congress nominee and non-official member P.S. Salim too resigned from the director board soon after.
Mr. Sasidharan said he could not be part of the management that had frozen the dearness allowance to the employees after announcing it. “The laxity on the part of the LDF government to intervene to pay the salary and pension of two months also led to the decision,” he added.
Meanwhile, the part payment of salary and pension has come as a big relief to the 35,000-odd employees and 37,000-odd retired employees. After overcoming the technical glitches in the treasury, the salary and pension was credited into the bank account of the employees and pensioners in the afternoon.
Using the Rs.50-crore loan from the Kerala Transport Development Finance Corporation (KTDFC) and the Rs.27.5-crore government contribution to the pension fund to the KSRTC, the transport utility paid 75 per cent of the salary to the employees and 25 per cent of the two months of pension to the retired staff.
The Rs.24,000 limit enforced for withdrawal from banks also came in handy for the KSRTC.
Complaints have come up from several districts that many employees walked out empty handed from ATMs as the banks had recovered the loan instalments due to lending agencies.
Although the KTDFC had agreed to pay Rs.50 crore to the KSRTC by withdrawing its deposit from the treasury, they got only Rs.46.5 crore due to the premature withdrawal of the deposit. Thus, the KSRTC was left with only Rs.74 crore to disburse the delayed salary and pension. A sum of Rs.113 crore — Rs. 58 crore for salary and Rs. 55 crore for pension — is needed.
The transport utility needs another Rs.94 crore to clear the pending salary and pension. With the government not extending any assistance as done during the UDF regime and banks reluctant to provide loans, tough days are ahead for the management.
The fuel bill that had gone up to Rs.125 crore has to be settled to keep the fleet running. The dwindling revenue from the fleet and the workers on agitation mode are also putting pressure on the management to take drastic action.